Two Indian pairs in tennis
doubles semis

The ace Indian doubles pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes moved into the semi-finals in the Asian Games tennis tournament on Wednesday.

In the quarter-finals, Bhupathi and Paes beat the Chinese pair of Xu Ran and Zeng Shao-Xuan in straight sets 6-4, 6-3.

The other Indian men's pair of Vishal Uppal and Mustafa Ghouse also made it to the semi-finals after prevailing over Vadim Kutsenko and Dimitriy Tomashevich of Uzbekistan 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 in the second quarter-final.

In the mixed doubles too India stole a semi-final slot, when Paes paired with Sania Mirza to overpower a spirited challenge from Vittaya Samrej and T Tanasugarn of Thailand in the quarter-finals, winning 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.

However, in women's doubles, the Indian duo of Nirupama Vaidyanathan and Manisha Malhotra lost to Japan's Saori Obata/Akiko Morigami 4-6, 4-6 in the first round, while in singles, Rohan Bopanna crashed out in the third round, going down to Takao Suzuki of Japan 5-7, 2-6.